The Montana Grizzlies were granted the unusual fortune of two bye weeks in one season. Montana entered both off weeks with losses. Now the Griz host an aggressive North Dakota squad that is in a similar position as UM. For UND and the Grizzlies, the playoffs likely start on Saturday.
[restrict paid=”true”]“It’s a new season,” Montana head coach Bob Stitt said during his weekly meeting with the media in Missoula. “We came in Monday and now it’s a five-week season. Things haven’t gone the way we planned, which is obvious. But we are only one game out of first place and we are in it. We have to go take care of business this week.”
On Saturday, Montana hosts a suddenly desperate UND team. Montana is 3-3 overall, 2-1 in league play with five challenging games remaining. UM entered its bye week after a 24-21 overtime loss to Weber State. Montana fell to Cal Poly before its first bye this season.
The Griz will likely have to win at least four and likely five to get into the FCS playoffs. Montana can likely afford just one more slip up to control its destiny for the league title.
“Once you get into conference play, you have to have a must-win mentality because once you get to playing teams in your conference, that’s how you find out if you are going to the playoffs or not,” Montana senior outside linebacker Kendrick Van Ackeren said during Tuesday’s weekly press conference. “If you don’t win those games, you have no chance. The preseason is important, it’s a big factor when it comes down to it. But at the same time, if you don’t win in conference, you are not going to make it to the playoffs. We do need to pick it up as far as our sense of urgency and just play it like every game is a playoff game because if we lose one, our chances of getting in the playoffs go down tremendously.”
UND is 4-3 overall, 2-2 in conference. North Dakota is in a similar situation in terms of wins needed to be a playoff participant but UND has even less margin for error in the league standings.
“It’s a big deal and this is going to be a big game because us and Montana, we are kind of in the same boat right now,” UND senior captain offensive guard Brandon Anderson said in a interview after UND’s practice on Wednesday. “This is really going to be a battle here and the winner will have a huge advantage coming out of this game.”
North Dakota began the season with a 4-1 record, the lone loss to in-state rival and four-time defending national champion North Dakota State. UND started Big Sky Conference play 2-0 with one of the wins coming over No. 13 Portland State, 19-16 in Hillsboro, Oregon. But a spat of injuries, including season-enders to junior inside linebacker Taj Rich and junior safety Zach Arnell along with an ankle injury to sophomore quarterback Keaton Studsrud have affected UND adversely the last two weeks.
UND has had two-score leads late in the game each of the last two weeks only to lose both contests. UND was up 31-15 with less than a minute left in the third quarter but Idaho State scored 22 unanswered points in a 37-31 win in Grand Forks. Last week, UND held a 24-10 lead over Weber State with less than 13 minutes to play. Jadrian Clark threw two touchdown passes in the final eight minutes to life Weber to a 25-24 win.
“We’ve done some good things up until the end of games but our last two losses, you can pick out drives where we didn’t close,” Anderson said.
“It’s hard to get handed a loss when you are going into the fourth quarter with a lead. Our team is playing well and everyone can see that. Everyone just needs to bounce back.”
Montana shot out the gate with a 38-35 win over NDSU in Missoula. The game was the first of the college football season and was broadcast nationally on ESPN. Following the game, Stitt proclaimed Montana was on track to return to its glory days, a stretch that saw UM win 12 straight Big Sky Conference championships and advance to seven national title games in 14 seasons.
Since the resounding opening of the Stitt era, Montana has struggled. The Grizzlies lost 20-19 on a last-second field goal to Cal Poly the following week. UM lost starting quarterback Brady Gustafson for an undetermined amount of time in a 31-21 loss at Liberty. The Griz started Big Sky play 2-0 thanks to a monstrous pass rush that piled up 13 sacks combined in a 24-13 home win over Northern Arizona and a 27-13 win at one-win UC Davis. Stitt’s offense has sputtered, averaging 22.2 points per game since the opener.
“We have a sense of urgency just to win a ball game,” Stitt said. “We are sitting at 3-3 and all three ball games, we had chances to win. We are losing on last second field goals, in overtime. We have a chance to take the lead in the third quarter at Liberty and we fumble on the one-yard line going in. We were very close to being in a pretty good situation as far as the record goes but you just have to worry about winning the game. We are finding a way to lose rather than going out and winning these games at the end.”
When Montana lost for the third time in historic fashion, it pushed the Griz to the brink. UM had not lost to Weber State at home since 1987. The loss was the second at Washington-Grizzly Stadium this season, Montana has lost twice at home in a single season just six times (1987, 1990, 1999, 2003, 2005, 2012, 2013) since the venue opened in 1985. Montana has lost 23 times at Wash-Griz all-time and has never finished with below a .500 record at home.
Montana lost three times at home in 2012, the last time first time UM finished with a below-.500 record overall since 1985 and the only time the Griz have lost three times in Missoula. That possibility is staring UM in the face already with home dates against this weekend against UND and November 14 against Eastern Washington still looming.
“I feel like with any sport it’s the same: you want to protect your home turf,” said Montana senior wide receiver Ben Roberts, a Missoula native and Washington State baseball player for the last four seasons who currently leads UM with four touchdown catches. “That’s something that is really important here, especially in Missoula. We have amazing fans. Protecting the home turf is very important.”
[/restrict]Photos by Brooks Nuanez or Noted. All Rights Reserved.
